, 1887-11-16
Sparks, Err.

Land Commissioner Sparks stands on
the threshold this morning ready to step
down and out from public office. During
his incumbency there has been no man
connected with the administration, not
even excluding the cabinet officials, who
has kept himself so conspicuously before
the public gaze. Whatever the senti
ment in the East may be, it is useless to
disguise the fact that his retirement will
be received with undisguised satisfaction
by many of the people of the West.
According to Secretary Lamar the
question at ssue between them was one
of authority-the necessity of an inferior
official obeying the commands of a supe.
rior. If this is the true state of affairs
her Mr.. Lamar in the abstract has acted
right, though he has not well chosen the
time for his action. On the other hand,
however, Mr.. Sparks distinctly claims
that the question is not one of authority,
but of law, which puts quite a different
phase on the matter.
Secretary Lamar's letter is a fine piece
of composition. In it he places himself
on a high pedestal from which he looks
down upon the underling Sparks with
mingled contempt and hauteur, while his
prettily rounded phrases serve as sugar
coating to pellets which are ION the less
drastic. He s~carifies his victim with a
k%een-edged razor instead of hacking him
with a meat ak.
In another column this morning we
publish Mr.. Sparks reply. Despite the
proyocation which he has received he does
not stoop to personalities. He takes the
ground that no question of authority Is
involved; it is simply a question of the
construction of law, in which he thinks he
should have the same right tobe heard as
defendants have always had. There is a
manly tone to the letter which is as far
removed from s~ycophancy on the one
hand as it is from unpleasant self asser-
ton on the other. The letter is very far
from placing him at a disadvantage in the
controversy.
From a consideration of the merits of
the two letters it is only natural that peo-
pie in the territories should come at once
to a consideration of Mr.. Sparks himself.
The first great cause for objection to his
policy was that it was so rigid. People
resented any interference with the loose
old ways of proving up desert claims in
rich bottom lands. Then they objected
because 1t was a matter of such difficulty
to c patents, in which there was per
haps more grounds for real discomfort
than any other. All claims were put
through a certain official routine and only
when a title was honestly shown was a
patent issued. This procedure took time
and worked hardships in individual cases,
but it was the only method by which the
administrations efforts to reform might
be realized.
Mr.. Sparks himself is a man who would
perhaps not be very popular under any
circumstances. Instead of hedging around
difficulties he p%lunges through them by
main strength, while his iron will and
strong self assertion were not calculated to
cement warm friendships.
THE LEADER has not always agreed
with Mr. Sparks. 1t was the first paper
in the territory to protest against the re-
troactive application given to his order re
garding desert lands within railroad limits,
but it has always believed that, though
his judgment was occasionally at fault,